Journalists Turn Their Backs on The Pentagon

By: Amanda Farlow

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has placed restrictions on how much the press can interact with Pentagon personnel. On October 15th, Hegseth sent a memo to Pentagon officials announcing the new policy, mandating that any communications that they have with Congress or state-elected officials must first be approved by the Defense Department’s legislative affairs office.  

Several news outlets across the United States have pushed back against Pete Hegseth’s new policy in the Pentagon. The policy requires journalists to acknowledge new rules regarding press access, including that they could be branded security risks and have their press badges revoked if they ask any department employees to disclose classified information. These major outlets stated the policy violated constitutionally protected rights that were granted to journalists’ and harmed their right to free speech and press. It also restricts the press’ ability to cover important national security issues. This is a highly important issue, especially given our current climate in the world. They consider the policy a threat to their constitutional rights and a threat to journalism as a whole.

Nearly all of the major news outlets, except for far-right source One America News Network and other smaller sources, rejected Hegseth’s Pentagon policy. The majority of major outlets from both sides of the political spectrum, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Fox News, The Associated Press, Reuters, and NPR, rejected the Department of Defense’s new policy. The main complaint about this new policy is that it is overly restrictive, and harmed the freedom of the press.